June 27, 1941: Roused by the frantic barking of his thoroughbred bear dog, Trixie, Jeff Rees, Canadian Customs officer stationed at the boundary above Wrangell on the Stikine River, rushed to the window of his home to find the place surrounded by bears. From out of the trail back of his house walked a huge mother grizzly bear and three cubs, two youngsters and one yearling. Rees, who doesn’t care for such intimate company with big grizzlies, got his gun but found he had only four shells. He drew careful aim on the cubs, killing the two younger ones and injuring the yearling which ran back into the brush, and then shot the mother, felling but only injuring her. Like the good old Marines, the Hazel B No. 2, river boat of the Barrington Transportation Company just then hove into sight and tied up at the scene. And a pathetic scene it was, for bear lovers. The mother bear lay injured and unable to move with a dead cub in each arm. Rees borrowed shells from one of the crew and quickly put an end to the mother’s suffering. Evidence of the size of the mother grizzly can be vouched for by the crew of the Hazel B. It was all four husky river boat men could do to drag the big carcass down to the river where, with the two cubs, it was consigned to a watery grave.
June 24, 1966: The Alaska Pacific Lumber Mill in Wrangell closed Tuesday, and manager C. Girard “Jebby” Davidson was reported to be in Ketchikan until Saturday, talking with officials of Ketchikan Pulp. Reason for the shutdown at the local mill was blamed on a lack of logs due to the three-week-old strike by loggers of the Ketchikan Pulp firm. No word is available at this time as to when the strike might be settled, or when the mill in Wrangell will resume production after the strike does end.
June 27, 1991: Wrangell was represented June 16 when Alaska Airlines began regular flight service from Anchorage to Russia. Karen Hofstad, owner of Wrangell Insurance Center, was one of 144 passengers and crew aboard the first flight by a company offering air service between the West Coast and the Soviet Far East. Hofstad was a member of a 60-person delegation representing the Alaska State Chamber of Commerce. Billed as the “1991 Alaska Soviet Far East Trade Mission,” the chamber group was also accompanied by the U.S. - U.S.S.R. Trade and Economic Council. Each delegate wore a name tag listing his or her name and affiliation in English and Russian and carried business cards with the same information. Hofstad also carried pins, pens and other items from Wrangell and Petersburg to hand out. Members of the chamber group besides Hofstad, who listed her business interest as “tourism,” included Margy Johnson, owner of the Reluctant Fisherman Inn; Bill Corbus, president of Alaska Electric Light and Power; Connie Yoshimura, owner and president of Fortune Properties Inc.; J.P. Tangen, attorney with U.S. Department of the Interior; state Rep. Tom Moyer and state Sen. Arliss Sturgulewski.
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